C-Realm Podcast

Summary: The C-Realm is a weekly, interview-based program which features discussions on topics ranging from a possible technological singularity, to entheogenic exploration, the re-localization of community and agriculture, and the competing narratives by which we define ourselves and navigate our world.

Podcasts:

Progress toward a more abundant material life does not come like manna from heaven, however. My message certainly is not one of complacency. The ultimate resource is people—especially skilled, spirited, and hopeful young people endowed with liberty—who will exert their wills and imaginations for their own benefit and inevitably benefit the rest of us as well.
-Julian L. Simon, from a report to the Cato Institute
Cover art by David Hewson, AKA Slocum, whom I met at the conference in Iquitos.
Guests:
Eric Boyd is the author of the Digital Crusader blog. Please visit his site and poke around a bit. So far, the C-Realm Podcast represents the second biggest incoming vector to Eric's site. SECOND?
Philip Horváth is the co-founder of the Center for Conscious Creativity. They help creative people find their financial footing and develop their creative vision.

In this episode, KMO welcomes Digital Crusader, Eric Boyd, back to the
program to talk about Transhumanist perspectives on the environment
and sustainable living. Later we hear from Philip Horvath of the
Center for Conscious Creativity, and finally KMO talks with BrainPaint
creator, Bill Scott, about the potential of EEG biofeedback technology
for ADD therapy, meditation, and self-improvement.
Guests
Eric Boyd is a co-founder of Stumbleupon.com, and he shares his forward-looking mindset with brainy readers in his Digital Crusader blog. This is Eric's second time on the show. You can listen to his first outing in episode #34 of the C-Realm Podcast: Principles of Precaution.
Philip H. Horváth, co-founder of the Center for Conscious Creativity and an independent agent, is a multi-talented compulsive creative and synthetic systems thinker. A counselor, coach, and consultant, all his activities are marked by three key components: immersion, integration, and innovation. Complete bio
Bill Scott is the principal investigator and first author of an addiction research project that yielded a 79% success rate with Native American alcoholics. This study was with Dr. Eugene Peniston (in press). An interview with Bill by the Psychiatric Times was published as a feature article. Bill Scott has also presented research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science with Dr. David Kaiser. Bill trained the researchers Dr. John Gruzelier and Dr. Tobias Egner (members of Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Behaviour, Imperial College Medical School) in the use of alpha-theta protocols. The results of this research project so improved music abilities among Royal Conservatoire of Music students that the Conservatoire has made these protocols a mandatory part of the school’s curriculum. Complete bio
EEG Biofeedback Links:
Bill Scott's Brain Paint technology:
http://www.brainpaint.com/
EEG Spectrum:
http://eegspectrum.com/
Open Source EEG:
http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/

Back from the shamanism conference in Iquitos, KMO relects on his
experiences with C-Realm listener, Pio, who journeyed with him, and
gives a rundown of the other podcasts that feature prominently in his
consciousness at the moment.
Links:
Agony Column Podcast interview with Charles Stross: Economic influences, space opera, gender swapping, Victorian Work ethics
Secrets, Cubes and Corporations: Doug Rushkoff on Inside Scoop
David Brin on Evaluating Horizons: The kind of political stuff that's in my head but which I keep out of the podcast.
Viking Youth #75: Ibrahim for Citizen
Psychonautica011: Ego Death
Iboga links from Kevin:
Ibogaine.org
Demitri on Ibogaine with Paul DeRienzo
Plus one more that showed up in my inbox today from Google:
A Home for Ibogaine in Barcelona
Download "Calling All Cars" (mp3)
from "Big Black Hole And The Little Baby Star"
by Sean Hayes
Sean Hayes
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album
Javier Arévalo Shahuano's bio (Translated with Bablefish):
I was born in the community Progress again, Napo River, in the department of Loreto - Peru; I am I complete of 4 generations of the Shahuano Family that practice the shamanismo, in my adolescence (17 years) I realized that the chamanismo would be my future. To the 20 years I underwent the lost one of my father (Julio Arevalo) because of virote (dart poisoned in the spiritual world) sent by a jealous and malevolent wizard in my community. Learning the Shamanismo Comence' my learning of 2 years in the virgin tropical forest, without having no contact with the outer world, having like teacher my Grandfathers (Antonio Shahuano, by who I began to know the properties curativas the plants, during the learning of the shamanismo is necessary to make a very strict diet on the daily feeding of a person, by who it could not eat foods that contain condimentos, sugar and salt, nor either frituras, to only fed me on which the forest provided to me, those were the conditions to get to be a good vegetalista doctor (they shaman). During my study in the forest the spirits of the plants and the animals made me include/understand that the shamanismo was not to make badly other people but to make the good and to cure diseases using the traditional medicine. Javier Arevalo Shahuano
Here's the original Spanish. Obviously, the machine translation remains pretty rough. If anyone wanted to clean it up and send me the polished English text, I'd be much obliged and would certainly provide props and a link.
Javier Arevalo Shahuano, nací en la comunidad de Nuevo Progreso, Río Napo, en el departamento de Loreto – Perú; soy el ultimo de 4 generaciones de la Familia Shahuano que practican el shamanismo, en mi adolescencia (17 años) me di cuenta que el chamanismo sería mi futuro.
A los 20 años sufrí la perdida de mi padre (Julio Arévalo) a causa de un virote (dardo envenenado en el mundo espiritual) enviado por un brujo celoso y malévolo en mi comunidad.
Aprendiendo el Shamanismo
Comencé mi aprendizaje de 2 años en la selva tropical virgen, sin tener ningún contacto con el mundo exterior, teniendo como maestro a mi Abuelo (Antonio Shahuano, por el cual comencé a conocer las propiedades curativas de las plantas, durante el aprendizaje del shamanismo hay que hacer una dieta muy estricta sobre la alimentación cotidiana de una persona, por el cual no podía comer alimentos que contengan condimentos, azúcar y sal, ni tampoco frituras, sólo me alimentaba de lo que la selva me proporcionaba, esas eran las condiciones para llegar a ser un buen médico vegetalista (shaman).
Durante mi estudio en la selva los espíritus de las plantas y de los animales me hicieron comprender que el shamanismo no era para hacer el mal a otras personas sino para hacer el bien y curar enfermedades utilizando la medicina tradicional.
Javier Arevalo Shahuano

In this Independence Day edition of the C-Realm Podcast, KMO talks with Brian Czech of the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy (C.A.S.S.E.) about the tension between our finite material resources and the expectation of never-ending growth.
Later KMO reads from an essay by Stanley Krippner, "Consciousness and the Mythologies of Society," in which he holds the central driving myth of the so-called First World up to the light of consciousness. How long can we afford to plot our course by the Grand Narrative of Progress?
The Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to advocating a sustainable economy with stabilized population and consumption. This economy is called a "steady state economy."
http://steadystate.org/
Here's an article that looks relevant, though I haven't read it yet:
http://www.countercurrents.org/parsons270407.htm

Letcher vs. Irvin. We hear the conclusion of KMO's conversation with Jan Irvin, and KMO contrasts Jan's presentation with passages from Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom by Andy Letcher. Who won? This
is only the first round. We also hear about funny from Some Guy Named
Paul.
If you'd like to follow up on the debate between Jan Irvin and Andy Letcher, read this:
http://www.egodeath.com/ViewsOnEntheogensInReligiousHistory.htm
You can find C-Realm Podcast #3 (which includes Paul's first appearance on the show) here:
http://www.archive.org/details/Episode3TalkinboutTheSingularity

Viking Brian is a founding member of the Viking Youth.
Jan Irvin is the co-author of Astrotheology and Shamanism: Unveiling the Law of Duality in Christianity and other Religions. You can find all kinds of good stuff from Jan and his co-author, Andrew Rutajit, including numerous audio interviews at Gnostic Media.
Email from Black Beauty:
Hi KMO,Please accept this small donation as a humble gesture of my gratitude for the time and effort you spend in bringing your listeners regular C-Realm installments. I see a definite value (both tangible and intangible) in the knowledge and discussions shared with listeners like me through your shows. I have even started my own herb garden for our cooking and go out of my way to frequent Organic and 'Slow Food' Farmer's Markets here in Melbourne - a far cry from having chickens but being an 8-to-6 corporate-type, living just 5 minutes from the inner city it's all I can manage right now! I listen to your shows quite regularly and make a point to be doing nothing else but listening and walking or sitting. Often it is on my 45 minute bus trip to work or perhaps during a forced lunch break at the large park behind my corporate offices.
Going for a walk in this park and listening to my MP3 player is a fortune that many take for granted but each time I step foot outside, it is with humility that I thank the powers that be for allowing me to do so. Free from torture, slavery, unemployment and poverty.
My mother came to this country (Australia) from a remote area of Indonesia where healthcare, schooling, clothing and education have been a rarity up until the last few years. Each time I visit, I am awed that my mother came up against such adversity to leave this small town and consequently prospered in Australia. My mother is one of only 2 or 3 others that managed to make a life for themselves outside of Indonesia and I am so proud of what she achieved. My mother worked hard and long as a factory worker, kitchen hand and cleaner up until weeks before her death in April 2006 from a long fight with cancer. Even to the end, she refused to stop working - seeing having a job as a privilege.
So many people around me take employment for granted. Instead, choosing to complain about their boss, their colleagues, their commute to work, the rising coffee prices at the cafe downstairs.
In her home town in Indonesia, unemployment is high. There is no social welfare system and combined with a lack of education and professional* healthcare, I see the increasing population being a further strain on the resources and lack of infrastructure growth in the region. In my family house alone, there are close to 6 related families staying on the property. On my recent visit, I shrugged off suggestions of staying at a hotel, instead offering to 'camp out' in one of the small rooms in the house. My father quickly chided me, reminding me that to stay in one of the rooms would be literally forcing a family out first! (I have attached a photo of the 'kitchen' at our house in Indonesia - that's me standing up with the fan in my hand. My family have a roof on their house (many houses do not even have a door). They are fortunate also to have many of the second-hand clothes passed on from my mother and I but we still struggle to provide them with things such as shoes and optical aids).
With the expanse of the internet, I have stumbled upon an increasing number of resources about women who are happy with being 'Childfree', either by deliberate choice, circumstance or health problems such as infertility. However, it wasn't until now that I am facing my 30th birthday and many of my friends are having children that I feel uncomfortablly compelled to conform to society's view of females as being mothers.
Strangely, your recent Podcast (Episode 42: Tragedy of the Bathroom) has prompted me to make this much-overdue donation and write you this email. Since I was about 18,

This episode consists mainly of a presentation given by Frank Echenhofer at the 2nd Annual International Amazonian Shamanism Conference in Iquitos, Peru. KMO also reads from the artists statement of visionary artist, A. Andrew Gonzalez, the sponsor of this week's episode.
You can find the cover of MAPS Bulletin Volume XV Number 3, by A. Andrew Gonzalez here:
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v15n3-html/images/fc.jpg

You can find the text of the Sciforums posts that I read on this week's show here:
http://www.sciforums.com/Population-and-Genocide-t-4933.html
Enough with the freakin' bathroom metaphor Already!
by Sharon Astyk
Excerpt:
What the bathroom metaphor actually does is equate "freedom" with "no limits" - it says that freedom and dignity are constructs of privilege and lack of constraint. That is, you have the perfect freedom of the bathroom when you never have to wait, or accomodate anyone else, adapt to or respect anyone else's needs. But that is *not* what freedom is - and I think this is an important point, because our consumer culture tells us over and over again that freedom is the ability to have whatever you want, whenever you want it. Freedom is "freedom of choice" and that is the equivalent of 63 choices of soda on the grocery store aisle, rather than the freedom from want, or freedom from repression - freedoms that only work when other people are aware of and attentive to others. Freedom, according to Dick Cheney, is the American way of life being "non-negotiable" rather than an egalitarian, shared and just life that extends beyond the borders of America. The bathroom example perpetuates the "freedom is choice" notion - that being free means never having to say, "excuse me."
I think that's truly and deeply wrong, and if we think this way about the population issue, we are perpetuating our most foolish habits of thought. Freedom is the right to assert your wants and needs in a world where others exist, and the right to have them respected, but it is not the right to never have to accomodate anyone else or share, and I think that's a really important point.
If we believe that freedom is the right to always have what you want, when you want it, we will persist in equating freedom with wealth and privilege. And some versions of the overpopulation argument seem to basically go like this "there are too many people - they are impinging on my right to have the stuff I want - if there were less of them, I'd have to make fewer accomodations to other people, and that would be better." That's not freedom, but greed. We all have it, we're all greedy folk, but we need not give our our own selfishness and greed a pretty cloak to wear and call it science.
For an extremely relevant discussion of human germ-line genetic modifications that would greatly help with the problem of population pressure, check out this post from Charles Stross:
http://autopope.livejournal.com/265753.html
The Solitary Reaper
. Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;—
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
-William Wordsworth
Read and Post Comments on Livejournal

A presentation given by Peruvian Curendera, Norma Aguila Panduro Navarro at the 2006 International Shamanism Conference in Iquitos, Peru.
Episode 41: Norma Panduro
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/792371/775222/
Film-maker, Jan Kounen will be a presenter at the 3rd International Amazonian Shamanism Conference in July.
If you register for the conference, please indicate on the registration form that you were referred by KMO.

In this 40th installment of the C-Realm Podcast, KMO talks across months and continents with Lorenzo of the Psychedelic Salon, Max Freakout of Psychonautica, and Viking Brian of the Viking Youth Power Hour.
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In this 39th installment of the C-Realm Podcast, we get a nuts&amp;bolts
explanation of the neurophysiology of the psychedelic experience from
Dennis McKenna as presented at the first International Amazonian
Shamanism conference in Iquitos, Peru in 2005.
Download Part 2 here:
http://www.archive.org/details/Episode39Part2TheThreePoundUniverse

In this episode, KMO talks about psychoactive sacraments and the law with Jacob Sullum, author of the Reason Magazine article, "Spiritual Highs and Legal Blows: The power and peril of religious exemptions from drug prohibition."
Jacob Sullum is the author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use and For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health.
You can find the Church of Cognizance website here: http://coc.enlightener.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi
3rd International Amazonian Shamanism Conference

KMO talks with Alan Shoemaker about the practicalities of lodging at the Soga del Alma site, and then we hear Peter Gorman's presentation entitled "Flailing in the Dark" about his experiences in the Peruvian Amazon with ayahuasca and other plant teachers.
Peter Gorman's Website: http://www.pgorman.com/

In this 36th episode of the C-Realm Podcast, KMO talks with Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization about the fragility of our vast centralized systems, the need for resiliency &amp; diversity, and the possibilities for renewal and reinvention which only present themselves in historical moments of disintegration and collapse.
Thomas Homer-Dixon has a great website, so I'll direct you there rather than put together a bio for him here.
To read about Zachary's thoughts on scientific materialism and consciousness, check out his blog: http://web.mac.com/jupiterspaceport/iWeb/Cyclotron%20Majesty%27s%20site/Blog/37845EBD-62A4-4C9A-96B2-C29CDD288638.html